Video Game Search

showing 1 - 50 of 184 games

name	publisher(developer)	year	description	platform
Backlash	Novagen	1988	Game-play consists of arcade style fast and frantic reflex action from the first-person perspective, much akin to Atari's coin-op Battlezone and programmer Paul Woaks' earlier and very similar 8-bit game Encounter. The game takes place on a seemingly endless flat landscape, littered with obstacles in the form of some pseudo 3D spikes protruding from the ground. Armadas of hostile UFOs shoot fire balls at you from every direction. Your aiming reticle is in the centre of the display, and is surrounded by circular radar, which is formed by a series of small white dots, within this are numerous red dots which represent the UFO enemies. You are dealt an initial five lives, and you score points for each UFO destroyed. The game features environmental effects, such as day time turning to night, and vice versa.* [182]* [2]* [77]* [83]* [49]* [57]* [22]* [52]	Amiga
Jupiter Probe	Microdeal	1987		Amiga
Amazon's Running Diet	Ancient Corp. (Ancient Corp)	2017		NES
Argus	Jaleco	1986	[media=youtube]OTLp349Xppw[/media]***Another really bland arcade port from Jaleco. Argus is a vertically scrolling shoot'em up game not much unlike [game=#8480]Xevious[/game], with undetailed graphics, much too high-pitched music and average playability.	NES
Balloon Fight	Nintendo;Hyundai (Nintendo)	1985	[100]* [4]* [22]* [52]* [49]*NES-BF-USA 1 player or 2 players simultaneous concurrent interactive dynamically cooperative or competitive play. Game is designed for both cooperative and competitive strategies. [Zerothis]Balloon Fight is a [game=#101]Joust[/game] rip-off. But playability is good, so who can blame them for it?**Control a character to pop your opponents' balloons before they pop yours. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Don't be fooled by this game's simple premise or cute exterior. Underneath you'll find a surprisingly addictive game with strategy to spare. After mastering the easy-to-learn controls, you still have to get a grip on the game's impressively realistic physics. And if that's not enough, there are the ever-increasing enemies and environmental hazards like lightning and water. Try the game's second mode, Balloon Trip, if you feel like taking a break from the action and just want to see how long you can stay aloft. And hey, who doesn't like popping balloons sometimes?	NES
Baltron	Toei (Shouei System)	1986	Baltron is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em up game with similar gameplay mechanics as defender. You can fly to the right and left and have a radar, which shows incoming enemies. But it is not a Defender clone. You don't have to rescue anybody and ultimately only have to go to the right. The game scrolls faster whenever you steer your ship forward to the edge of the screen. You also have the ability to warp a little bit forward, but that costs precious fuel. Otherwise I couldn't make out any extra weapons. The controls are ok, but the game itself is pretty boring, has no levels and is continuously looping with just a few color changes .	NES
Battle City	Namco	1985	[media=youtube]DfixqYPonHw[/media]*1 player or 2 players simultaneous. [Zerothis]*Battle City feels a bit like an evolved form of the Atari 2600 classic [game=#41961]Combat[/game]. With your own tank you have to defend your headquarter, which is in the bottom middle of the screen, from enemy tanks. Enemy tanks come in four different variants, regarding speed and shots they take until they are destroyed. Tanks can shoot down brick walls and hide under trees, but have to maneuver around solid walls or pools of water. Shooting a blinking enemy tank makes an extra appear somewhere on the map. Upon collecting this you get certain bonuses like freezing all enemies, creating an undestructible wall around your hq and so on. Besides a standard one player mode the game features a very nice cooperative two player mode. When you become bored you can also build new levels via an editor in construction mode. Graphics are below average, music is nearly non-existant, the sound effects during the game get their work done. Playability is rather good, especially the two-player mode can be real fun.	NES
Choplifter	Jaleco (Tose)	1986	Choplifter for the Famicom is a port of Sega's arcade version, which itself is an enhanced remake of the old Apple II original game Choplifter. The Famicom version features all four arcade levels. The goal is to rescue a certain amount of prisoners in each level with your helicopter. You start from a base and fly left until you come to structures or buildings which contain people. Destroying them will release the people and you can pick them up by landing near them. While flying you can shoot down hostile air and ground forces, which try to stop you. Graphics are only average and the music is on the weak side. The helicopter's controls are not the best, movements feel too slow. Despite being a (semi)-classic, the game didn't age very well. If you want to play a good home conversion you might better try the much better Master System version, which lacks one level, but features better audiovisuals and controls.	NES
Choujikuu Yousai Macross	Bandai (Namco)	1985	Macross is a great license, but the result is merely an average standard shoot'em up experience. In each round you have to fly through space towards a Zentradi mothership. Once there you enter the mothership and destroy its reactor core. This repeats endlessly just with more difficult enemy waves. There is not much of a story, so the license is wasted here. At least there are nice enemy designs. You can switch your own mech vehicle into three different forms, each with some positive and negative side-effects regarding speed, maneuverability and rapid-fire. This gives some depth into the otherwise rather monotonous gameplay.	NES
Devil World	Nintendo	1984	Lost in the maze of Devil World, Tamagon the Dragon has to steer clear of the Devil, his nasty co-Devils, and his treacherous helpers, Medaman, the Fried-Eggman and Bon-Bon, and ward off their attacks by breathing fire. After each round, the maze scrolls up, down, right or left. The Devil decides the direction and points with his finger. As you guide Tamagon through the maze, you also have to avoid being sandwiched between the walls.*Devil World is a Pac Man clone with an interesting new element. The maze is automatically scrolling randomly in all directions. So it can happen that you are trapped inside the maze and squished between the maze wall and boundary wall. Additionally there are not only "eat all dots" rounds, but also some rounds where you have to carry bibles found in the maze into the middle of the maze to win the round. These elements work pretty well and give Devil World the necessary extra dimension from being a simple clone.*Only released in Japan and Europe. What little language usage it has, it's in English, even in the Japanese release. The Japanese title reads approximately [i]debiru waarudo[/i] (Devil World).	NES
Donkey Kong 3	Nintendo (Nintendo EAD)	1984	[media=youtube]https://youtu.be/p4A5zoBuEzA[/media]* [22]* [52]* [47]A strange entry in the Donkey Kong game series. Graphics are nice and it is a playable game, but it ultimately lacks variety and does not have the kind of "evergreen" status like the original Donkey Kong.**Based on the third game in the enormously popular arcade series, Donkey Kong 3 introduces an exterminator named Stanley as he desperately tries to protect the flowers in his greenhouse from Donkey Kong. Armed only with a can of bug spray, Stanley must force Donkey Kong higher and higher into the greenhouse rafters until Donkey Kong is off the screen and the next stage is reached. Not surprisingly, Donkey Kong isn't going to move without a fight, so he sends wave after wave of bugs, bees and other creatures toward Stanley. Not only must Stanley repel the insects in order to save the flowers, but he'll also have to keep an eye out for projectiles thrown by Donkey Kong himself. If Stanley is good enough, he'll be able to grab a can of more powerful bug spray and really get Donkey Kong moving. It all adds up to frantic fun that anyone can enjoy.	NES
Exerion	Jaleco (Tose)	1985	Simplistic shoot'em up game, featuring a - very sloppy and distracting- scrolling terrain under the players ship. You also have a limited amount of ammo at your disposal. Killing enemies fills the amount of ammo back up a bit. Gameplay is a bit like Galaga, but with worse playability.	NES
Galaga	Namco;Bandai (Namco)	1985	[100]* [49]* [33]* [52]* [37]*Faithful arcade port with good playability, but gameplay feels a bit old.*Move the fighters right and left and defend against the missiles and suicide attacks of the Galaga aliens and the Galaga Commander through infinite levels of play - with every third level having a challenging stage! Retrieve captured fighters from the descending Galaga Commander tractor-beam and double your firepower!	NES
Galaxian	Namco	1984	The Galaxian Fleet has invaded and it's up to you to stop them. There's two-way action in this game; as you fire at them, they're firing back at you! All that is required of you is quick reflexes and an accurate aim. Can you destroy the Galaxian Fleet before they destroy you?*Released only in Japan. Night Arrow is a pirate version from China A prototype NTSC version was created for a USA release but remains unreleased.*In 1979 Galaxian was a milestone in the arcades and the NES version is an accurate port. But that doesn't make the game more interesting or less monotonously five years later. Always the same repetitive waves of enemies accompanied with plain graphics and sound.	NES
Gegege no Kitarō: Youkai Daimakyou	Bandai (Tose)	1986	This game is based on a manga/anime series that is rather unknown in the western world. That must have been the reason why they changed some sprites and background music for the US release of the game and retitled it "Ninja Kid". The gameplay stays the same in both versions though. Walking on an overworld map, your task is to challenge a boss enemy in the main castle. However to be able to enter the castle you have to clear other (randomly generated) stages which have its entrances also appear on the overworld map. In these stages you have to kill x enemies or collect y items in order to complete the stage. Collecting a special item on your way, you are ready to face the boss in the final castle. Once he as beaten the game continues on to the next overworld screen. The graphics and music are ok, as are the controls. I just wished the game had some ingame storyline or something else that wouldn't make it feel so much like a conglomeration of little standard stages. The fact that the game has no ending but eventually loops endlessly doesn't help.	NES
Geimos	ASCII (Micronics;Wixel Corporation)	1985	[media=youtube]0VkT639__Tk[/media]***Below average shooter which is played from a third-person perspective similar to [game=#192]Space Harrier[/game], just with far inferior graphics. Aiming is always an issue with this kind of shooters and Geimos is no exception in this regard.	NES
Gyrodine	Taito (Human)	1986	Commonly misspelled "Gyrodyne". But Box and Title screen are clear on the proper spelling "Gyrodine".*Unimpressive generic vertical scrolling shoot'em up game. You switch between shooting airborne or ground targets similar as in [game=#8480]Xevious[/game]. There is only one seemingly everlasting level and no extra weapons. Your helicopter also moves a bit too slowly and enemy projectiles a bit too fast making it a pretty hard game.*[media=youtube]N8fEi-fxTMQ[/media]	NES
Kaettekita Mario Bros.	Nintendo	1988		NES
Karate Champ	Data East (SAS Sakata)	1986	Data East brings you arcade realism at home! Put on your black belt and challenge your friends or the computer through nine picturesque settings to become the Karate Champ. Flatten your opponent by deftly executing the kicks and punches at your command. Sharpen your martial art skills through the series of karate matches in this super arcade classic.*Karate Champ for the NES is based on the arcade hit from 1984 and one of the first classic 1vs.1 fighting games on the NES. Too bad that the controls and especially the hit detection are rather bad. It felt to me that it is pure luck whether you hit your opponent or not. The game plays different (in a negative sense) than the arcade version. The background graphics have a mixed quality, the animations are unspectacular. On the positive side I could mention the little speech samples when a fight begins. Otherwise I see no real good points in this overall disappointing game.1 player or 2 players simultaneous competitive. [Zerothis]**An attempt to port the arcade game to the NES that fails miserably due to terrible graphics and control. [Jacquismo]	NES
Kidō Senshi Z Gundam: Hot Scramble	Bandai (Game Studio)	1986	I admit to be quite a Gundam fan, but this game didn't impress me. Each of the stages consists of three parts. The first part plays on Earth and has you shooting down other mobile suits and aircrafts from first-person perspective. The second part is the same just in space. In the third part the perspective changes to a side-view shooting game inside space stations and huge spaceships where you have to find your way to the reactor and blow it up. This part resembles that of [game=#36978]Thexder[/game]. Graphics are average, the same music is played through all the parts and all the levels. The first-person parts look a bit better than the side-view part, but I didn't like the overly hectic shooting. And while the Gundam series always had a strong story, there is nothing story-wise to find ingame. So for me this wastes a lot of extra-motivational potential, similar as it was with the earlier released [game=#170413]Macross game[/game] for the Famicom.	NES
Mappy	Namco	1984	Mappy is a side-scrolling platform game that features cartoon-like animals, primarily cats and mice. The game's main character itself is a mouse. The player guides Mappy the police mouse through the mansion of the cats to retrieve stolen goods. Mappy and the cats move between floors by bouncing on trampolines at various places in the house. Both Mappy and the cats can land on a floor on the way up, but not on the way down. When they pass in the air, Mappy is unharmed by the cats, but if Mappy runs into a cat anywhere else, he will lose a life. A round is completed when all the loot is retrieved. [i]Source: Wikipedia[/i]***In Mappy you control a police mouse with the task to retrieve stolen goods from buildings infested with lots of criminal cats. In order to reach an upper platform you have to use one of the numerous trampolines. A good arcade port and one of the better platform games of the pre Super Mario Bros. era.	NES
Mario Bros.	Nintendo (Intelligent Systems;Nintendo)	1983	[100]* [62]* [49]*NES-MA-GBR is used in official Nintendo documentation but the cartridge shows only "GBR" NES-MC-NOE, UPC: 0-45496-63070-6, Mario Bros. (Classic Series) published 1993-04-13 in Germany.You can play alone, or team up with a friend as Mario and Luigi tackle this underground adventure together. There are plenty of cagey critters to conquer -- turtles, crabs and fireflies, to mention a few. You'll progress through endless levels of challenge collecting gold coins and building your score as you go.1 player or 2 players simultaneous. [Zerothis]Enjoyable arcade port and one of the earliest Famicom/NES games ever released. One of the better platform games of the pre Super Mario Bros. era.**Overly simple, straight-forward, yet strangely fun 2-player game. There was a way to access it from [game=Super Mario Bros. 3]Super Mario Bros. 3[/game]. [cjlee001]	NES
Millipede	HAL Laboratory;HAL America (HAL Laboratory)	1987	You are lost in a dark, perilous, and enchanted forest. Dark dangerous mushrooms push up through the squishy forest floor, snaring you on every side. Something slimey flashes through the mushrooms, moving in on you. The MILLIPEDE, not a normal size one, but the gigantic monster, is attacking you. All you have to fight back with is the magic arrow. Shoot his head to turn him into mushrooms. But that is not the only thing attacking you. There are more creepy, crawling, buzzing, swarming creatures in this forest. Keep fighting with your magic arrow. If you are lucky, you may survive. Watch out, here they come!*Like most other ports of old, classic arcade games for the NES, Millipede is quite playable, fast and stays true to the arcade original. But the gameplay feels a bit too old for a 1987/88 release. After a couple of tries I got bored and didn't get any motivation for playing more, because except accumulating a higher score there is no goal in this game. Oh and why did they put an archer-like character on the game box and a story of your character being lost in a field of giant mushrooms, and at the same time they call your character sprite "ship" in the game?*ミリピード巨大昆虫の逆襲 / Milli-Pede:巨大昆虫の逆襲, HAL-ML, 1987-10-01 in Japan Millipede 1988-10, HAL-ML-USA, in USA Its centipede with added enemies, bonus levels, creeping mushrooms, and DDT bombs. This game also uses a flying craft armed with a laser like weapon instead of the garden gnome armed with a magic wand. The main objective is to shoot the millipede. Shoot it in the middle and the remaining sections will run around independently of each other. One of 4 prototypes presented by Nintendo to Atari as part of their deal to partner with them to bring the Famicom to North America. The potential deal was forgotten and ignored moments later as Atari began to considered that the 1983-84 video game market crash was possibly the end of videogames rather than a long-term pause in the market. These prototypes are not under copyright but do contain trademarks. [quote]Nintendo will, in the interests of expediency for this Christmas season, program 4 Atari titles of our choice.[/quote] [Zerothis]	NES
Ninja-kun: Majou no Bouken	Jaleco (Tose)	1985	[i]Ninja-Kun: Majou no Bouken, Ninja Kid: Castle of Demons Adventure[/i]***Arcade port of the first game in the "Ninja-kun" series. You control a little ninja who has to defeat each enemy on screen. The game's formula is reminiscent of many other games of its time. You have very few stages packed with enemies. Once you have cleared all stages the game repeats itself just with more and deadlier enemies. Graphics are basic and the sound and music are annoying. It is a bit beyond me why this game started a successful series...	NES
Onyanko Town	Pony Canyon (Micronics)	1985	In Onyanko Town you control a mother cat in her search for her little kitten, which strolls around in a huge maze-like town. When you found your kitten your task is only half finished. You have to bring him back to your home under worse conditions, namely more aggressive enemies. Enemies consist of cars, dogs, manholes etc. Being in a town gives this maze game a nice touch. Otherwise it is nothing special and good for just a few tries.	NES
Pac-Man	Namco;Tengen;HES (Namco)	1984	[100]* [27]Pac-Man is a classic and it was just a matter of time until it saw a release on the Famicom/NES system. Generally the port is well done, but the gameplay of Pac-Man didn't get fresher over the years.Move Pac-Man through the maze, avoiding ghosts and eating all the Pac-Dots. Beware, each of the ghosts behave differently. When Pac-Man chomps a Power Pellet, he becomes invincible and is able to eat the blue ghosts. The more ghosts Pac-Man eats in a row, the higher the score. Don't forget to eat the bonus fruit too. Released in 1980, Pac-Man is the most well-known video game on Earth and is also commonly acknowledged as one of the most successful coin-operated games in history. Enjoy this masterpiece of gaming history today.Tengen published a licensed version of this game in North America. After some disagreements with Nintendo, they published an 'unlicensed' version that did not contain Nintendo's seal of '$10 has been added to the cost of this cart'. After Tengen was court ordered to temporarily stop selling unlicensed NES games; Namco published yet a third version of this game. Namco's version was licensed (and cost more). Also, Tengen and Namco both originated with the old Atari company. They are separate companies, but Tengen and Namco continued to be business partners for many products. All versions developed by Namco パックマン, NAM-NPM-4500-02, JAN:4907892000025, published 1984-11-02 by Namco in Japan Pac-Man NES-PQ-USA, UPC:0-31763-03111-6 published 1989 by Tengen in North America Pac-Man (Unlicensed) TGN-003-PM, UPC:7-22674-02032-9 published 1989 by Tengen in North America Pac-Man (Unlicensed) HES-PM, EAN:9312590130090 published 1990 by Home Entertainment Suppliers in Australia Pac-Man NES-P7-NOE published 1990 by Nintendo in Germany Pac-Man NES-P7-FRA published 1990* by Nintendo in France Pac-Man NES-P7-UKV published 1990* by Nintendo in the United Kingdom Pac-Man NES-P7-AUS published 1990* by Nintendo in Australia Pac-Man NES-P7-USA, UPC:0-45496-43049-8 published 1993-11 by Namco in the United States UPC:031763031123 ? *Dated by the printing on the circuit board (manufacture date). Actual publishing date might be years later. [Zerothis]	NES
Pooyan	Hudson Soft	1985	You control Mama pig and defend your little pig family with a bow and arrows against attacking wolves. Shoot the balloons and the wolves fall to their death. Hudson did a good job by bringing an accurate port of the classic Konami arcade game Pooyan to the Famicom system.	NES
Popeye	Nintendo	1983	[169]* [22]* [66]* [52]* [52]*Now you're the King of Spinach in a battle for Olvie's love! Are you ready to climb ladders, jump landings, eat spinach and punch out Brutus, Seahag and the flying Bernard? Because that's what it takes to win Olive Oyl's hand in marriage. You'll score points by defeating your enemies and collecting the "love tokens" Olive drops from her window. The more you collect, the more points you'll score and the faster you'll win her love. But watch out. Around every corner lurks another jealous suitor. You'll have to think with your head as well as your heart to win this fast action love affair!* [47]*UPC: 0-45496-63023-0 appears on some packages, but this is not a valid UPC code. It is most certainly a typo of the valid code 0-45496-63023-2 which appears on other packages.Popeye and Brutus are at it again in this video contest for Olive Oyl's affection. As Popeye, you must battle the likes of Brutus and the Sea Hag while you race to collect all of the floating hearts that Olive tosses to you. Once you have Spinach power, Popeye can conquer all, but without it, watch out! [...] Olive throws things and Popeye has to pick them up while avoiding the attacks of Brutus, Seahag and Bernard. In round I, Olive throws hearts; in round II, musical notes; and in round III, letters of the alphabet. Try to pick them all up before they sink in the water.**Popeye was one of the launch games for the Famicom/NES system release in Japan. It's a well done conversion of Nintendo's own Popeye arcade game. The goal in each level is to catch all objects that Olive Oyl is throwing down (hearts, notes etc.), while at the same time avoid being catched by Bluto. Graphics are great for a game from 1983 and I still like the gameplay and the different design of each level.	NES
R.C. Pro-Am	Nintendo;Hyundai (Rare)	1988	"R.C. Pro-Am" is a popular early NES racing game featuring remote controlled cars (although you might wonder why they drive easily over 100MPH). The controls work well and the racing is reasonably fun. There are some upgrade methods for your car which is also nice. Despite the good features the game felt a bit bland to me. There are a couple of tracks but they are graphically not very appealing and somehow all too similar. There is also no league mode or something like that. As long as you don't finish last in a race you continue to the next race endlessly with tracks repeating themselves after some time obviously.* [22]* [66]* [1]* [52]*Grab your controller and pull up to the starting line. It's you against four other all-star racers in this thrilling Nintendo R.C. racing competition! You'll face hair-pin turns, outrageous curves, oil slicks and rain clouds as you make your way through 32 treacherous courses that will test your driving ability like never before. Along the way, you'll pick up performance boosters like Turbo Acceleration, Sticky Tires and Top Speed taht will help you get to the finish line first. But, if the going gets tough, you'll use your bombs and missiles to knock the competition for a loop to make sure you're the winner! Collect the letters that spell N-I-N-T-E-N-D-O and you'll collect and even more powerful car. Then hop in and enjoy the ultimate in video racing competition, R.C. Pro-Am!*Some US packages have the UPC as 0-45496-63039-0. This is an invalid UPC code and a typo. The correct IPC, 0-45496-63039-3, is on other US packages. Announced as Pro-Am Racing, but the name was later changed.	NES
Raid on Bungeling Bay	Brøderbund;Hudson Soft (Hudson Soft)	1985	On a tiny, remote planet, the evil Bungeling Empire is creating an awesome war machine. Civilization as we know it seems doomed. One faint hope remains. A single highly mobile raider might be able to carry out a surgical strike to the heart of The War Machine. Only a fighter pilot of enormous skill and courage could hope to neutralize all six Bungeling islands. Even as you strike at one island, robots repair the damage you've done, attacking again and again with a savage arsenal of destruction. Who could possibly succeed? Who else but you? - Realistic helicraft controls - 360° scrolling screen - 5 increasing levels of challenge*No visual confirmation of UPC: 7-55030-01223-2*Start with your helicopter from an aircraft carrier and fly and destroy several factories located on islands. Defend yourself against missiles enemy aircraft and ground attacks. The overhead view graphics show the game's age, they are plain and undetailed. Gameplay on the other hand is complex enough to motivate for a few tries.	NES
Road Fighter	Konami;Palcom (Konami)	1985	[66]* [64]* [37]* [29]*A very simplistic racing game with four stages. You have to reach the end of each stage/checkpoint before your fuel runs out. Plays more like a pure "avoid all obstacles game" instead of a racing game. The feeling to actually drive something is really missing in this game. In 1991 (six years after the initial Japanese release) Konami released the game in Europe under the Palcom label. Why they did this is a bit beyond me.	NES
Seicross	Nichibutsu;FCI (Nichibutsu)	1986	Seicross is a port of a rather unknown arcade shoot'em up game. You control a futuristic hovercycle on a planet's surface and avoid being shot by enemy projectiles, maneuver around obstacles and ram enemy hovercraft into the scenery or just shoot them down. Along the way you rescue persons to collect some extra points. Graphics and music are unspectacular. The whole game becomes boring after a short period of time. Many level elements are repeating itself and the game has no real end. The game didn't hold my interest for long.	NES
Sky Destroyer	Taito (Home Data)	1985	Sky Destroyer is a pseudo-3D third-person shooter in a second world war environment. Gameplay is similar to [game=#16657]After Burner[/game]. Of course the graphical effect is not nearly as impressive on an early 8-bit Famicom game and the landscapes mainly consist of water. Shoot down planes with your machine gun and occasionally some enemy ships with torpedoes. The game is playable and people who like this kind of shooting games will be pleased enough for a few tries.	NES
Spy Hunter	Sunsoft	1987	Spy Hunter... considered armed and extremely dangerous. You control the turbo charged race car/hydro spy boat. You control a deadly arsenal of missiles, machine guns, oil slicks and smoke screens. Multiple nerve-shattering spy-action screens. Sophisticated spy-challenging graphics. This is hardly a game. It's a high-speed test of your secret agent skills. Meet the challenge and survive SPY HUNTER!***Spy Hunter might be a real classic in the arcades, but the NES version doesn't appeal to me. It's fast, yes, but thats all good I can say about it. The graphics are not very pretty and the gameplay is not very varied. An endless street (or waterway), avoiding other vehicles or shoot them down. And on and on it goes without change. There are no levels and no end goal besides accumulating a high score. That might have worked for an 1983 arcade game, which drew its main attention from its steering wheel controls, but it does not for a 1987 NES game in my opinion. I turned my NES off with a big yawn after two tries.	NES
Sqoon	Irem (Home Data)	1986	Sqoon is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em up game. The player controls a submarine where he not only has to shoot everything in sight but also has to rescue as many humans as possible from underwater farms (where they are held like cattle by hungry alien invaders cough). Only by delivering people or gold bars to the surface you can fill up necessary fuel. Without fuel or touching an enemy you die. The graphics are not very detailed, background graphics consist mainly of simple blue water. Controls are average. Worst part is the miserable hit detection and the boringness that comes as soon as you have seen two levels. There is virtually no variety in later levels. After the eighth stage the game starts at stage one with some more palette swapped backgrounds.***The proper name is "Sqoon", however, proper spelling would be Squoon. which is not the actual title of this game.	NES
Terra Cresta	Nichibutsu;Vic Tokai (Nichibutsu)	1986	'TERRA CRESTA' is a shooting game that was released from Nihon Bussan in 1985. Players recapture parts that have been left in the ground. Intercept the enemy in formation attack and aim to the space devil Mandora. 'Arcade Archives series' has faithfully reproduce the masterpiece of arcade games for PS4 system. Also support PS4 system features. Players can share play screens and video with the SHARE feature, and players can also compete with other players for score online ranking. Please enjoy the masterpiece that built a generation for video games.***Terra Cresta is an arcade port and one of those typical vertical shoot'em up games that were so popular in the 80's. Playability is good, but the game is rather repetitive and eventually loops endlessly, which I don't like to be honest. There is the element of upgrading your ship with extra parts similar to Nichibutsu's other 1986 Famicom/NES shooter game [game=#7980]Magmax[/game]. That results in more firepower but it is also harder to avoid enemies' shots, because your own ship becomes significantly larger. Graphics and sound are average (and I miss a super cool title screen music as in the C64 version).	NES
Tiger-Heli	Pony Canyon;Acclaim Entertainment (Micronics)	1986	[49]* [33]* [52]* [37]Tiger-Heli is a vertical scrolling shoot'em up arcade port. You control a helicopter and shoot everyhting in sight. The game suffers from sprite flickering. That the Famicom/NES can do much better with better programming was for example proved by Zanac, which was released at about the same time. On the other hand the game's background graphics actually resemble "realistic" landscapes and objects. You fly over towns with streets and fortified, big battleships on the sea. That is a nice variation from many other shooters of its time where the background graphics are just a conglomeration of shapes and objects. After four stages the levels eventually repeat themselves endlessly. With smoother programming this game could have been cool, but as it stands it is just an average shooter.The Mission: Shatter the enemy defense lines and destroy the military headquarters of a war-crazed nation. The Time: Sunrise. The Place: Classified information. The Weaponry: Tiger-Heli and you. Tiger-Heli. The result of a billion-dollar defense project. The ultimate stealth helicopter. Turbine powered. Forged from ebony metal and glistening chrome. Armed with heat-seeking missiles and impact bombs. Able to fly in the stratosphere or inches above the ground. With only enough fuel to get you to the heart of the mega-fortress. Getting out is up to you. It's a last-ditch effort to halt a war-crazed nation. Fanatics sworn to overrun any country they can conquer. And, in this war, they've been winning. They have rocket firing tanks, destroyers, and weapons never seen before. You have Tiger-Heli!*Tiger Heli is the name of your helicopter, according to the box the result of a billion-dollar defense project and forged from ebony metal and glistening chrome. Your goal is to defeat the country of Cantun, which is run by terrorists and has become completely power hungry with an aim to take over the whole world. You're shooting tanks, ships, aircraft carriers and trains while flying towards the impenetrable military base. You shoot crates to get pickups. If you shoot the crate when it is green you get a bomb pickup, if you shoot it when it is red you get a mini helicopter that attaches to one of your sides shooting sideways, and if you shoot it when it is white you get a mini helicopter shooting forward. If you shoot 10 crates with a yellow diamond shape you get an extra life.	NES
Urban Champion	Nintendo	1984	Think you're tough, huh? Well, you better be. Because you've got to be quick on your feet and fast with your hands to become the next URBAN CHAMPION. You've go the block, fake and land punches that will knock your opponent off the screen. Do that three times and there will be a confetti celebration in your honor as you become the new URBAN CHAMPION. But watch out. Just when you think you've beat him to the punch, you fall into an open manhole! Or get hit by a falling flower pot! Think you can handle the action? Then prove it. Play by yourself or challenge a friend, either way you'll have a knockout time defeating the toughest guys in the neighborhood in URBAN CHAMPION.* [22]* [52]* [52]* [52]* [49]Urban Champion is a very simply structured, slow-paced fighting game with bad controls. Attacks are limited to punches only, the opponents all look the same, the game is very repetitive. Only the background graphics are nicely done.**A somewhat repetitive fighting game where you must use your punches to knock your opponent off the side of the screen and continue on to the far side (every third stage), where you can knock him into a manhole. [Jacquismo]	NES
Warpman	Namco	1985	Simple single-screen shooter where you have to kill a certain amount of aliens to finish a stage. Warpman is basically an improved version of the 1981 arcade game [game=#763]Warp Warp[/game]. There are two different playing fields. The one is in space and has very straightforward shooting gameplay, the second one is in a Bomberman-style maze where you have to leave bombs on the ground to kill nearby enemies.	NES
Wrecking Crew	Nintendo	1985	[4]* [22]* [52]* [49]1 player or 2 players simultaneous cooperative. [Zerothis]Nice early puzzle / platform mix with nice graphics for its time. Destroy (nearly) everything on the screen to make it to the next level. One of the not so well known games featuring star plumber Mario.*In the days before Mario and Luigi became sports stars in their downtime between plumbing and saving the Princess, they tried their hands as one-man wrecking crews. With a hammer as their only tool, players take control of the brothers and set out to destroy ladders, rip out pipes, knock down walls and detonate explosive devices. But make sure to plan your path of destruction carefully, as each building is designed as its own clever puzzle—if you're not careful, you can easily trap yourself in a dead end. Adding to the excitement and challenge are fireballs, enemies and an angry foreman roaming the buildings. They're all trying to stop you from moving on to the next stage. With 100 buildings to demolish and the ability to construct your own, it's a wonder Mario and Luigi ever got back to saving the Mushroom Kingdom.	NES
Xevious	Namco;Bandai (Namco)	1984	[49]* [33]* [52]*Yes, Xevious is a classic arcade title of some fame. And it is a title released early in the Famicom era. But that shouldn't be an excuse for an overall unenjoyable gaming experience. Gameplay could be considered well done, since the controls are decent and the fact that you must throw bombs on ground targets gives the game a bit variety. But it is exactly the boringness and the non-variety of all the rest with the neverending flight over very plain ground with dull colors, shooting waves after waves of the same, bad looking flying enemies and ground targets that makes this game so inferior to nearly all shooters that would follow. The sound is especially annoying.*Players control their Solvalou ship and destroy the XEVIOUS forces. Fire the zapper missiles against air-based enemies and drop the blaster bombs down upon ground-based targets. Destroy Andor Genesis to earn bonus points. Unique enemies, interesting background music, a variety of vertically scrolling background environments and many hidden game play features differentiated Xevious from the other shooting games released at the time. Are you devious enough to beat Xevious?	NES
Galaxian	Atari;CCE;Digivision (General Computer)	1983	Stangely, the screenshot shown in the review is from the C64 version; plus, it states that Galaxian "finally comes" to the Atari 2600 whereas the game was released the year before and already reviewed in an older Tilt magazine. Finally, the publisher is stated as "Imagic", which had not published this game. [48]* [48]* [48]***Technically minded observers may notice that that this game displays 8 multicolored enemies on the same horizontal line, 35 enemies total, the player and the player's 'missile' all on-screen at the same time without any flickering. That is, on a real 2600, most emulators don't display this game properly. At this time in Atari 2600 development, it was the consensus that any more than 4 moving multicolored sprites was not possible without flicker or 'venetian blinds' type effects. Mark Ackerman figured out away to 'freak out the graphics chip by strobing the registers in exactly the right order at the right times.' So unique was his technique that he was granted a US patent. In recent times programmers have been able to coax out of the 2600 hardware, 11 sprites per line and 48 total moving objects. [Zerothis]	Atari 2600
Mappy	AtariAge (Champ Games)	2019		Atari 2600
Mario Bros.	Atari;CCE;Zirok	1983		Atari 2600
Asteroids	Atari	1982	CX-5201 1player, 2 players, 3 players, or 4 Players simultaneous in any combination of competitive, cooperative or team play. Its not vector. Besides the multiplayer options it the same as the [game=#5207]2600 version[/game]. Shoot the asteroids into pieces and shoot the pieces into itty-bity pieces, and then (due to 8-bit physics) they disappear when shot. Destroy them all and the screen fills up with asteroids again. Watch out for the occasional UFO. Move around with thrusters if you want, or teleport to a random place, or even shift phase to pass through solid objects. Tod Frye programmed [game=#107963]the Atari 8-bit version[/game] which is practically identical to this one but says he did not port it to the 5200. In the history of home videogames, this game is the only launch title never to be released. This North America NTSC prototype was finished, boxed and ready for production. All according to Atari's ads, catalogs and announcements of launch titles. But at the last minute, canceled.[spoiler= ; ][/spoiler] [Zerothis]	Atari 5200
Galaxian	Atari	1982	[125]***CX-5206. Rarity 1 common. North America NTSC. 1 player or 2 players alternating. When using controllers, player uses a controller in port 1 and player 2 in port 2. When using a Trak-Ball controller, each player takes turns while it stays plugged into port 1. The game in between [game=Space Invaders]Space Invaders[/game] and [game=Galaga]Galaga[/game]. This version was originally announced as a "SuperSystem exclusive" but as we all know, Galaxian conversions eventually came live on most home systems. Shoot the formation of aliens and dodge their periodic kamikaze attacks. Or for the ultimate challenge ram them back (the single pixel on the tip of your ship is lethal if used precisely.)[spoiler=Hint;Hint]When a flagship is destroyed the fleet will morn by not firing for a moment.[/spoiler] [Zerothis]	Atari 5200
Mario Bros.	Atari	1983	[131]***CX-5247. Rarity 3 scarce. North America NTSC. 1 player or 2 players simultaneous. The game freely allows for cooperative or competitive play without enforcing either. Indeed, its is very enjoyable for players to agree to cooperate on dispatching enemies, competing over coins, but stop short of trying to kill each other. Hit the platform from below to disable enemies walking above. Then kick 'em while their down to remove them from the screen. A disabled, or ignored enemy will eventually come back stronger and faster. Collect 5 of the coins generated by defeating enemies to advance to the next level. A lot like the [game=#123]arcade version[/game] except for a more animated death. [Zerothis]	Atari 5200
Galaxian	Atari	1983	The Galaxian Fleet has invaded and it's up to you to stop them. There's two-way action in this game; as you fire at them, they're firing back at you! All that is required of you is quick reflexes and an accurate aim. Can you destroy the Galaxian Fleet before they destroy you?	ColecoVision
Galaga	Sega (Namco )	1985		Master System
My Hero	Sega	1986	A bunch of seedy punks - complete with mohawks - try to steal your girl. It's a new variation on the old "Boy loses Girl" theme. Only it's more like "Boy loses life, if he doesn't get Girl back." Battle knife throwers, ferocious bulldogs, flying bottles, even the gang leader - whose name happens to be Mohikan. If it all seems hopelessly overwhelming, take heart. You're a high-ranking kung fu master. So you do have incredible martial arts skills in your favor. But then again, you don't have your girl. The punks do.* [22]* [52]*** [52]	Master System

permalink